Television viewers have a number of ways to avoid commercials and other content that they are not interested in watching (collectively, “commercials”). One strategy is to change to a second channel when a commercial is presented on a first channel and then to return to the first channel when the commercial is probably over or almost over. Picture-in-picture is a technology that assists in this process. Another strategy is to record the program on the first channel, and then at a later time the user can advance (or fast forward) through the commercials in rapid steps while watching the previously recorded program.
Sporting events provide particular challenges, because channel changing during commercials entails some risk of missing an important play, and because watching a recording of the sporting event after it has concluded is generally unsatisfying.
Fantasy sports platforms—such as those provided by Yahoo! and other Internet services—provide athlete and point information to fantasy team owners and support the operation of millions of fantasy sports leagues. Most players access their fantasy sports team information by use of a laptop or mobile device. Accordingly, fantasy sports platforms have adapted their content for display on such devices.
However, there has been a failure of existing technology to provide a unified user experience to sports fans watching television and sports fans utilizing Internet-based fantasy sports platforms. The failure is compounded because sports fans must utilize various devices to keep current with various professional sports and fantasy sports interests, and must watch unwanted commercial messages while doing so.